MASSAGED KALE SALAD W. SEEDS AND SUNDRIED TOMATO

February 7, 2016

Hello,

It’s Sunday and I know many of you out there like to do some meal prep today for the coming week. I thought I’d lend a helping hand with this quick and easy massaged kale salad that is great as a side for most dishes and works perfectly as a base for larger salad bowls or Buddha bowls as well.

Many people I meet say that they tried kale but it never worked for them and I completely understand where they’re coming from. Especially if you’re not really into the green flavours to begin with. However I’ll always argue that everyone can like any vegetable- you just need to find that way of preparing it to make your taste buds dance.

With kale peparation is key! I’d never eat kale straight of the stem as it is rather dense and tough to chew. My three favourite ways of preparing kale is to roast it like I do in my ultimate cheesy crispy kale recipe, sweating it in a pan with a lid along with some garlic until tender or I simply massage it with some kind of dressing or simple lemon and salt until it becomes much more pleasant to pop in my mouth. And this is what I want to share with you today. It really is the most easy way of getting kale into your diet and as already mentioned it is a great side or base for endless combinations.

I think I’ve perfected the massaged kale salad in this recipe and I love the combination of tahini, tamari/soy sauce and lemon as the ‘massage oil’ or dressing. It’s earthy and light all at ones and brings lots of flavour to the green curly kale. I choose curly kale because it is one of the more tender varieties of kale but feel free to play around with different varieties. If using a more tough variety you might find that you need to massage it for longer.

I don’t have kids myself but I can image this being quite a satisfying job for little hands eager to help in the kitchen. And over all I find it very satisfying myself to get my hands dirty and touch the food. We don’t often do that these days and I think it’s a lovely way of interacting with what’s going on your plate, a very grounding kitchen practice. You can put a lot of love into this salad if you massage it with care and by focusing completely on this task consider who you’re cooking for and send your energy into the food with them in mind. This is something I’ve learned from macrobiotics the last few months; to really care for the energy I put into things to make sure that I’m getting out of tit what it is that I want and need.

Back to the ingredients temselves I include sun dried tomatoes in this recipe to enhance the flavour of the dish and I also add seeds for crunch. Feel free to change it up here as well; other crunchies that could work well are sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds or some chopped nuts. I like almonds, walnuts, pecans and pistachios. And if you have a minute over why not toast them to deepen the flavour? You could add chopped olives in place or as an addition to the sun dried tomatoes. Go with the flow and see how you feel – what do you want on your plate? And most important of all – enjoy!

6-7 medium/large curly kale stems

3 tbsp tahini

2 tbsp tamari (or soya sauce)

1/2 lemon, only the juice

8 marinated sundried tomatoes, chopped

2-3 tbsp hemp hearts

2-3 tbsp sesame seeds

Sprouts of choice (I used garlic sprouts), optional

Clean your kale, remove the stems and then chop the kale finely. Place it in a mixing bowl.

Add tahini, tamari and lemon juice and massage kale for roughly 5 minutes. Don’t be afraid to really get your hands dirty and get in there properly, really try to break down the fibre of the kale to make it tender.

Chop your sundried tomatoes and add them into the salad along with seeds and mix.

Transfer the salad to a serving bowl and add sprouts on top/around or simply mix them in if you prefer.

Welcome! My name is Malin and with my love for good, wholesome vegan food I started this blog. Here I share all my favourite recipes, my travel shenanigans and general thoughts on this and that. Stay tuned for delicious food and lots of good stuff.
#mygoodeatings

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